Wieck v. District of Columbia Board of Zoning Adjustment

The majority has found, as indeed it must, that the illegal use of petitioner’s building for residential purposes cannot be justified on a theory of estoppel. It seems to me incongruous, then, that the majority should sua sponte invoke laches to permit that same violation.

The majority recognizes that “[d]ue to the important general public interest in the integrity and enforcement of zoning regulations, the affirmative defenses of estoppel and laches are not judicially favored.” Ante at 10. This is undoubtedly correct, for the general rule is that neither of these defenses is ever available…